Inside the thoughts of an average gamer.
Posts tagged nintendo
E3 2009: Nintendo Press Conference – HOOOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP
Jun 2nd
It was a short conference, but Nintendo definitely learned from its lesson after last year’s weak showing. This year, they pulled out all the stops and announced something for just about everyone this year, and it’ll have hardcore gamers dusting off their Wiis in anticipation.
Nintendo’s press conference was pretty much rattling off game after game after game, a lot of which the core gamer will enjoy. There’s a full list of what they announced after the jump, but be warned, it’s LONG.
E3 Is Upon Us!
May 29th
It’s that time of year again. Starting Monday morning and continuing until Thursday night, the biggest and longest running gaming convention gets underway at the LA Convention Centre. E3 is here!
Since I’m just an indie, upstart blog, I couldn’t even hope to get into E3 if I tried. However, our friends at Gaming Union are preparing to head down to SoCal as I type this and will be covering the event from top to bottom. As well, you can find live feeds of the big 3 conferences on Gametrailers and probably Gamespot as well. I will also be summarizing the day’s big stories here, as well as giving in my thought on the big 3 conferences depending on whether or not I get around to getting to all three. (My eyes will obviously be on Nintendo and if they can redeem themselves from last year’s poor showing.)
However I will be missing a good chock of the event, as my DSL line will be offline for at least all of Wednesday to allow the installation of IPTV in the house. This wasn’t my decision, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time as far as gaming news is concerned, so my summary for Wednesday (and maybe Tuesday) will likely have to wait until Thursday morning at the earliest. (Either that, or hopefully there’s a neighbor who wants to be “generous” with their WiFi that day.)
IT’S JAPANESE MAHVEL BAYBEE! Tatsunoku vs. Capcom Confirmed for US release.
May 20th
Yes, I’m a bit slow on this.
By now, if you’ve been following this, you probably know the runaround. Sometime late last week, a scan of the latest issue of Nintendo Power showed an article showing Tatsunoku vs. Capcom, the latest in the “vs. Capcom” series that was made famous by Marvel vs. Capcom. The article specifically hinted that the game was coming to North America, which is something that a lot of people were expecting to never happen due to the nature of the characters on the Tatsunoku side.
Well, CAPCOM thought differently on that, and Capcom Unity’s Twitter account confirmed that Tatsu vs. Capcom was one of two or three “mystery games” that they were showing at E3 next month. That being said, not only is CAPCOM surprising us with this Wii game that we never expected to come outside of Japan, but they also have two more that they’re going to spring upon us.
But this is why we all love CAPCOM. They’re one of the few developers that actually listen to their fans.
In the meantime, you can find some TvC gameplay footage after the jump.
The Official Announcement for Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver is Super-Effective!
May 9th
You know, if it’s something I still take to heart, it’s Pokémon. Although it doesn’t rank that high on my to play list anymore, I’ve been faithful to the franchise since the original release of Red & Blue back in 1998. It’s the RPG that got me hooked on RPGs. Then in October 2001 came the high point of my Pokémon “career” with Gold & Silver. Although I found it to be much, much easier than the first generation games ever were, I played the absolute hell out of it. By far, out of all the Pokemon games my gold version has the most hours logged. There’s just too much to do; The first real ever implementation of a real time clock meant you had to play the game at different times in order to complete the game. The fact that you could go back to the first region also meant there were a staggering sixteen badges for you to collect.
2004 saw Fire Red and Leaf Green recreate the original experience. Now, the second generation gets its turn as Pokémon: Heart Gold/Soul Silver for the DS was officially announced by Nintendo of Japan yesterday, with a fall 2009 Japanese release. (This probably translates to Q2 2010 if you live in the US.) Both games will be a remake of Gold and Silver respectively with the obvious graphical upgrades to Diamond/Pearl standards, touch screen functionality which I would assume would be used in the same functionality as DP, with the Pokégear replacing the Pokéetch on the bottom screen. Not to mention there’s always a chance of new content like what they did with Fire Red and Leaf Green.
Although I’m much older now, I honestly can’t wait. I’m sure that when I get my grubby hands on this, I’ll be playing the hell out of it.
It’ll be just like old days.
UPDATE: Apparently serebii.net got a hold of the first screenshot from the game, which can be seen here. It’s currently unknown whether or not the screenshot is legitimate, though.
Hands-On with the Nintendo DSi
Apr 8th
As if we didn’t need another interation of the Nintendo DS already, the DSi, which launched in Japan late last year, arrived in the rest of the world over the past weekend. The system, which looks to be the “Game Boy Color” of the original DS, has a few subtle improvements and additions from ths DS and the DSLite, from its larger screens to its two cameras. At a time where Nintendo would usually be long overdue for a new handheld, they’ve decided to add new innovations to their current one and leave the door open for titles exclusively for this enhancement.
I actually wasn’t looking to pick a DSi up this close to launch. It just so turned out that it wasn’t going to pull a Wii and sell out for the next year and a half on launch day and that I had the funds available for it without causing too much harship. Carpe diem? I guess.
And Now For Something Completely Different: Sega Announces Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Feb 12th
Pardon my eagerness to write something about this, but as I’m an Olympic fanatic and the next Olympic games happens to be happening in my hometown, I just have to go through with this.
On a day where Canada is marking the one year countdown to the start of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 winter games, Sega decided to mark the occasion in their own way by uploading a teaser video on YouTube for their second Olympic-based game following their Mario and Sonic mashup of Beijing 2008, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
Indie gaming: osu!
Jan 30th
The Rhythm genre, made extremely popular with Konami’s Beatmania, Guitar Freaks, and of course Dance Dance Revolution, has always been an addicting one in my mind. As a talanted musician-in-limbo I have always dug these types of games, although that mainly pertains to Guitar Hero/Rock Band.
At the same time, however, Nintendo and Inis put rhythm to the stylus with the Japanese hit Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!, which sees players tapping hit circles and dragging across sliders to music as they appear on the screen. Over here, that became Elite Beat Agents with its exclusive 15 song library of popular western hits spanning the past 20 or so years.
Gamer Gear: Carrying More Games and Less Cases; The Loyal Nintendo-ite Way
Jan 29th
When it comes to Nintendo and handhelds, it has always baffled me how, as the handhelds get more and more advanced and the games become bigger, the cartridges have always become smaller. I was shocked when the GBA came out and found that the cartridges were maybe not even half the size of that of the game boy and the GBC. Even moreso with the fact that DS game cards are even smaller. Here’s the thing, though; I like to keep my game cards safe from dust, but for that why do I have to carry around a case for each game that’s double the size of my DS lite?
